Step 5 - Traps
Beneath the earth's surface, oil will ooze through rocks if there is enough space between them, but this oil will not accumulate into large quantities unless something traps it in a particular place. There are a variety of geologic traps, which themselves can be broken into categories:
Structural trap types: anticline,
fault, salt
Stratigraphic trap types: unconformity,
lens, pinch-out
Combination traps
It is important to remember that oil is not all by itself in some sort of underground cave, but is, instead, contained within solid rock - which has enough room within it to actually soak up (or become soaked in, however you look at it) oil.
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